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THEATER; Substance and Spirit Shine in 'Mass Appeal'

''MASS APPEAL'' is too much with us, in professional, in stock and in community theaters. Even the movies have had their colorless way with Bill C. Davis's two-character play, which moved from Off Broadway to Broadway in 1981. One does not expect to find Fleetwood Stage in New Rochelle, N.Y., whose mission is mightier than a ride on a war horse, with such an overcooked item on its bill of fare. And yet. And yet.

Mr. Davis's play remains a winner. Attending the current production here is like revisiting an old, old friend. An indelicate imbalance in performance is offset by substance, resilience and spirit.

Father Tim Farley -- played inimitably by Milo O'Shea in the strong play and by Jack Lemmon in the weak 1984 film -- is an unorthodox but cunning priest. His priorities are in order: entertainment over enlightenment, tact over truth. ''Simple and stupid'' is the essence of what he preaches. ''Say something inane'' is what he practices to those he counsels in private. Result: a compromised position, political savvy and mass appeal. Symbols of success: he drives a Mercedes and hides bottles of bubbly in his cabinet.

And then Farley meets his match, his new demon, the eternal threat, a contemporary radical angel.

The impassioned rebel with a truly deep intensely rooted cause is Mark Dolson. Farley tries to tame him, to curb his ''James Dean quality.'' But, of course, Dolson is his young alter ego. As mentor to a seminarian who mouths off, Farley says: ''The pulpit is not the place to ventilate.''

The relationship between Farley and Dolson progresses from combative to empathic. As Dolson insists that the spirits move him, Farley is moved by the spirits in his cabinet. Autobiographically based, ''Mass Appeal'' is Mr. Davis's first full-length play and remains his best. Its wit, warmth and youthful wisdom easily overcome resistance.

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But it is a charmless account of a role that Mr. Barry first played in 1983 with the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival in Madison, N.J., where he was the artistic director for more than 25 years.

To complete a potentially satisfying theatrical journey, a performance at once so fired and reasoned as Talmadge Lowe's needs a more pliable actor than Mr. Barry. Manifesting innocence as Dolson, Mr. Lowe is adept at traveling from intelligently rooted hostility, alienation and toughness to emotionally purged honesty. Given the odds, Lisa Milinazzo's direction is good to Mr. Lowe, perhaps overly solicitous to Mr. Barry.

Short of a site-specific production in a real church, like the 1984 York Theater Company's staging in the chancel of the Church of the Heavenly Rest on Upper Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, with E. G. Marshall as Farley, Fleetwood's new home is a welcoming place for Mr. Davis's durable play.

And the audience is drawn into Farley's congregation by virtue of Richard Meyer's evocative setting. But the real setting is outdoors. The theater, once a museum, and its exterior, a nature center overlooking the expanse of Long Island Sound, is a godsend for a company with a customary point of view -- and now, a priceless view.

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A version of this review appears in print on March 8, 1998, on Page WC14 of the National edition with the headline: THEATER; Substance and Spirit Shine in 'Mass Appeal'. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe